This turned out to be a lovely portrait sketch. While, in real life, the subject was coyly smirking, I gave her a more
Nature
I spent part of the month working with gestural brush strokes to paint playful nature scenes or, in the case of the few rocks/hills I represented, the thick shapes created by hard shadows.
I was channeling a bit of Monet on this one. Taking a grand total of 4 minutes, I worked a square brush with fast strokes to simulate light passing through the leaves of a tree.
Living in the SF Bay Area, you see a lot of fog. In this particular scene, I was recalling from memory how thick fog banks look rolling over the Santa Cruz montains.
Just a really quick, dreamy sketch of a bear dozing on top of a boulder. Has a children
And...well, a bird on a rock. The rock itself didn
I had some images of Ireland (or, my idealized version of Ireland) in my head. I also wanted to create a simple, geometric scene using the contrast between light and shadow on sharp-edged hillsides. This was done with a single square brush.
Another attempt to get strong edges and contrast going with a square brush. Rocks are pretty good candidates for playing with this technique.
Perhaps not entirely in the
...Hmm. That last one was definitely better.
August and September usually see white nectarines in season, and I love the elegant, soft colors around the center pit of the fruit. It is very nicely represented with a watercolor wash and bleed.
Fruits of My Labor
Almost entirely opposite of the playful theme of the “Nature” pieces, this set focuses on the vigor of grinding and juicing oranges. I was dealing with a couple of stressors in my life, so a lot of that came out in these pieces.
My first piece in the series. While the edges get a bit hard to read between the fingers, the orange, and the juicer, I really do like the patches of red that I bled into the knuckles. They help accentuate the pressure being put on the rind.
Another approach, with more delineation and greater emphasis on the spray of juice.
A lighter and gestural approach to the subject matter. Because of the deep red knuckles, the focus is driven more to the twisting motion at the wrist.
I always think about telling a
I toggled back on the intensity of the close-up images by capturing a woman at a local farmer
And, similarly, an extremely rough capture of a little girl doing the same.